Chapter 4

The Cloud Of The Dark Side

"Master Yoda, you need to explain yourself!"

"Explain myself, to the likes of you, I will not!"

Rizza stared at Yoda, wide-eyed.

The man in the hologram that Yoda glared at was handsome by human standards. His graying hair was cut immaculately short, his face blemish-free and clean shaven. Broad shoulders filled his Jedi robes. A wide brown belt covered his small waist, from which hung the chrome hilt of his lightsaber. Remarkably, despite Yoda's clearly rude reaction to the man, Qui-Lek remained completely implacable.

"Yoda, we don't have to do this! What is wrong? Perhaps we can help."

"Starting the mission early, I am. Need to know more than that, you do not."

Yoda ended the transmission before Qui-Lek had a chance to respond. He tossed the portable holotransceiver back into the cockpit of the ship and walked into the holding area. He looked at Rizza for a moment and tears welled in his eyes. Yoda bit them back and walked to the main doors, a bag slung across his shoulder. The doors lowered into a ramp that touched down on the surface of Migruna III. Yoda started out.

"Tell my mother, we should." Her voice was a whisper. Yoda kept walking down the ramp onto the soft earth, as if he hadn't heard her. It was early morning in Prime Village. The suns were still below the horizon and the light was just beginning to break. A thick fog lay low on the ground and the fresh smell of the dirt, wet with the morning dew, filled the air.

"Please?" Her quiet voice broke with emotion. Yoda turned to regard her.

"Do what you will." Yoda sighed, his brow knitted tightly.

He was finding it more and more difficult to use the Force to calm him. Something was encroaching on his connection with the Force. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew that it was close. It felt like a cloud in the Force—a cloud that permeated everything as surely as the morning mist. He had to penetrate the cloud.

He noticed the tears in her eyes. She was scared. He considered that it may not have been wise to explain his vision to her. Perhaps it was not wise to share his vision with the Tribal Council either. The need to comfort her washed over him but he knew that what he really wanted was for her to comfort him.

He needed to be alone.

"Meditate, I must. Go into the woods, I will. Hope, I do that in the Force, an answer exists. Your mother, contact. Stay in the Outer Rim, she must. When complete your communication is, find me. Address the Tribal Council together, we will."

Rizza walked down the ramp slowly and stood in front of him. Her eyes were wide as she looked into his. "Scared, I am."

Yoda nodded and turned his back to her. He began walking into the woods. Before long, only a dark silhouette remained in the murky wisps of white.

Rizza cried.

"Fear leads to the dark side." Yoda's voice boomed from the impenetrable haze. Rizza's nod didn't stem the tide of tears that flowed from her eyes. She stared at the space where Yoda had entered the mists until even the shadow of his form faded from sight. She then wiped her eyes and trekked up the ramp.


He couldn't feel the stump beneath him. The customary pressure on his legs didn't register in his brain. He no longer smelled the fresh morning air. He didn't experience the damp sensation of the fog as it lapped against his skin. His eyes were tightly shut. His breathing was so deep and slow that the rising of his chest only occurred once or twice a minute.

Yoda was deep in meditation.

When Yoda used the Force to aid him in his meditations, the entire world faded around him. His mind connected with the vast flowing waters of the Force. Normally, he allowed the currents to take him to whatever destination the Force deemed worthy.

Not today.

Yoda powered his way through the Force. Every path he took brought him to a barrier. Every tributary was dammed by an unknown power. Yoda wailed against the blackness, but could not get through. Floating in the Force, next to the largest barrier to his probes, Yoda began to panic. It was cold. It was the same cold he had felt every time he heard the voice. The harder he pounded on the barrier, the stronger it seemed to become.

He wasn't strong enough.

With absolute certainty in the Force, he knew. The knowledge he sought was on the other side of the obstruction in the Force. He had to get to it. He had to save Migruna III.

How can I not be strong enough? he thought.

Because, Yoda, where you limit yourself, I do not. I will always be stronger.

"No!"

Yoda's eyes went wide in a flash. The sensations of the world flooded into him with sudden intensity. Sweat poured from his brow and his hands trembled. His lungs desperately tried to pull air into his harried frame. His heart pounded against his chest.

Fear leads to the dark side…

"I wish you would stop talking like that, Rizza!"

Only Yaddle's head floated in the space above the holoemitter. Rizza smiled inwardly at the thought that her mother managed to find a way to look down at her sternly despite being a hologram. Rizza stared at her mother's smooth green skin and marveled at how unlike they were.

She frowned.

"Speak, I do, like all migru. Same as Yoda."

"Yoda is overly sentimental and can't help trying to be like all the other migru! Why he won't accept that he wasn't raised as a migru is beyond me."

"Ashamed, you are, of where you come from?"

"Don't be silly, Rizz! Of course I'm not ashamed. I just don't see the point in pretending."

"Pretending, he is not! Lived among the migru for one-hundred years, he did. Only natural, it is, that identify with our people, he does."

"I think he does it to make himself seem unassuming. Like a simpleton."

"Mother. Please." Rizza sighed. The argument was not new. Her mother was obsessed with fitting in the rest of the galaxy and Rizza, like Yoda, cherished her uniqueness. "My friend he is."

"Fine. I won't discuss it any further." Yaddle's eyes narrowed into thin slits. She looked at Rizza for a long moment. "Wait. There's something you're not telling me."

Rizza stared at her mother for a long time. "Love him, I do."

"No, you don't!" Yaddle's voice went up an octave. Her eyes lit with irritation. "You're infatuated with him, at best." She sighed. "I admit that Yoda's attractive. I know what it's like. Gandol seemed pretty attractive at the time to me, too. But Rizz…it won't work."

"Why not?"

"Because he's old. Because he's a Jedi. Because no matter how infatuated he becomes with you, he'll never really love you. He will always be a Jedi, first and foremost."

Rizza's eyes narrowed. She swallowed. "To talk about Yoda, called you, I did not," she whispered.

Yaddle's eyes widened. "Then what is it, Rizz?"

For the first time since the conversation started, Rizza raised her head and stared across the galaxy into her mother's eyes. She fixed her mother with a look of steely resolve.

"Migruna. In danger it is."


"My mother, speak to you, she would."

Yoda glanced up at Rizza from his seat on the stump. His face was inscrutable, but he clearly looked uncomfortable, as if he had just awoken from a bad dream. His discomfort was even more vivd in the Force. Often, when she tried to perceive Yoda in the Force, she was unsuccessful. But on the rare occasion that she was able to see him, the Jedi Master was always wrapped in a sphere of pristine blue energy. Her mother's aura, by contrast, was always much smaller and never as crisp.

He was different now. Although his outward appearance was impassive and calm, in the Force, tongues of blue fire roiled about him chaotically. There was no steady rhythm to the pulsing energy surrounding him. Within the blue pyre, red flickers of flame flitted into existence momentarily, only to be snuffed out by their blue brothers. Rizza's eyes widened at the sight.

"What does she want?"

"Your plan. Wants to know it, she does."

"Have a plan, I do not." Yoda stood unsteadily, stretching his limbs as if waking up from a restless sleep. He stared out into the woods, allowing his gaze to wander aimlessly. The morning mists were burning off and the first of Migruna III's suns broke free of the distant mountains. A shaft of light burrowed through the trees and lit the ground in front of Yoda's feet. Tentatively, the Jedi Master knelt and put his hand into the beam of light. Yoda slowly smiled as the warmth of the sun's rays permeated his body.

"Delightful, the gifts of the Force are." His voice was low and reverent. "Truly delightful."

"Master Yoda…" Rizza stared at Yoda cautiously. Her mouth opened and closed several times as she watched Yoda let the light play against his hand as he moved it back and forth through the sun's single ray as if trying to catch the minute dust particles that danced within. Rizza's hesitation dissolved into a warm smile as she watched Yoda continue his waltz with the light. His exuberance was contagious. Suddenly, several more beams of light rocketed down and the illusion was gone.

Morning on Migruna III fully broke through the trees.

Yoda stood, his smile gone.

"Go to the Tribal Council, we will." Yoda walked decisively to Rizza. She no longer saw any hint of red flames surrounding the Jedi Master in the Force. He stopped in front of her and stared into her eyes. Gently, he raised his hand to her cheek as if caressing a delicate flower that might break apart in his grasp. Rizza's appreciative smile slowly waned.

"My mother?"

"Speak to her, I will." Yoda frowned and placed a hand on his chin. "Suppose, I do not, that taught you to build a lightsaber, she did hmmm….?"

"No. Not ready for the responsibility, convinced she was. Have my crystal, I do, thought."

"Good. Speak to the Council, we will. Your mother address next. Then…a weapon you will create."

Rizza smiled excitedly. Yoda did not.

Rizza's smile evaporated as quickly as it had formed. She looked into Yoda's eyes and saw nothing but concern. Wrinkles had formed in his leathery skin along his brow. She hadn't noticed it until now. "Master Yoda, what is it?"

"Unconcerned, you seem to be, about why. Learn, you must, to seek answers. Why are we here? Why a disturbance in the Force, on Migruna III exists? Why, about your lightsaber, does Master Yoda ask? To be a Jedi, ask why, you must!"

Rizza nodded, frowning.

Yoda turned to exit the woods.

"Master Yoda?"

"Hmmm….?"

"Why about a lightsaber, do you ask?"

Yoda stopped and looked up into the trees as if searching for patience. After a moment, he looked forward and began trudging through the soft earth. He called over his shoulder.

"Afraid you will need it, I am."


Gandol's face was stern.

From anyone else, Yoda's report would have been met with condescension and bemusement—it was Gandol's way. From Yoda, however, the news resulted in a look of concern.

They were friends, first and foremost. Yoda often marveled at how much the two had seen their world change over the centuries…

"Destroying our world, this technology is," Yoda would say. The argument was always the same.

"Changing us, not destroying us, it is," Gandol always replied.

"Destroy the planet's beauty, it will!"

In those moments, Gandol would often take Yoda by the arm and quietly lead him to the top of the tallest hill they could find. The two migru would stand there in silence listening to the wind and watching the sky. The moment would always end with Gandol's confidence.

"Millions of years, this beauty has stood. Only a fraction of that time experienced it, I have. In those short years, more beautiful our planet has grown. When gone I am, live on she will. Change this, lights and ships can not. Convinced, I am, forever beautiful, Migruna will be."

Yoda frowned at the realization that Gandol had been wrong…

"Expect from us what exactly, Yoda?"

"Evacuate," Yoda replied simply.

"Evacuate?" Taru stood and hobbled forward, his walking stick clunking against the wooden platform of the Tribal Council floor. "Evacuate? Ridiculous!"

Yoda waived his hand dismissively without turning to acknowledge Taru. The old minister was instantly hoisted into the air and thrown unceremoniously back onto his stump. "Say no more, you will."

"Say no more, I will." Taru replied mechanically, his eyes glassy.

"Yoda!" Gandol stifled a laugh. "This is serious!"

"Yes, Gandol! Serious, it is! My point precisely, you make! Insignificant, the power you see is, compared to the terror in my visions."

Yoda's voice was firm but his pleaded with his eyes. Gandol regarded Yoda impassively. The other ministers began murmuring amongst themselves. Yoda cast them sidelong glances and began to realize that they didn't believe him. He searched their thoughts in the Force and found nothing but confusion, distrust, and…fear? They were afraid of him!

"Fear me, you should not! Save you all, I would. My counsel, you should take!"

Gandol eyed the room, canvassing the gathered migru leadership. Their grumbling grew. The ministers shifted in their seats uncomfortably. Yoda shook his head as his large ears picked up their pointless whispers. Gandol straightened in his seat and fixed his eyes on Yoda.

"Thank you, Master Yoda." Gandol's raised voice quieted the room. "At an end, this meeting is. Discuss our options at our next meeting, we will."

"But—"

"Master Yoda! Respect the decisions of this Council, you must!" Gandol's tone brooked no further argument.

Yoda balled his fists so tightly that his green knuckles grew white under the strain. His mouth drew into a tight grimace, but Yoda focused his efforts on relaxing his furrowed brow. Closing his eyes tightly, he reached out into the Force and dragged the energy into him with all of his might. A moment later, his fists uncurled and his grimace relaxed.

"Of course," he whispered finally.

Gandol stood and smiled. "Ministers. Return to this subject, we will, when next we meet."

The ministers rose and filed quietly out of the tree-house. Yoda remained rooted to his position and Gandol stood solemnly. When the last of the ministers exited, Yoda looked up at Gandol and opened his mouth. Gandol raised a hand to silence him.

"Rizza!" Gandol called out. "Come. Concern you too, this conversation does."

Rizza poked her head into the doorway and looked at the back of Yoda's head. The Jedi Master did not turn, but instead stared fixedly at a knot in one of the floor boards. She hesitated for a brief moment before she slid into the room.

"I am sorry, Yoda," Gandol whispered softly. "Accomplish nothing, you would, if continued on your path you did."

"Fools!" Yoda snapped. He glared up at Gandol, his eyes burning with anger.

"Yoda! Listen to yourself! Unlike you, this is!"

Rizza tentatively reached out and touched Yoda's shoulder. When he didn't recoil, she let her hand rest there. "Yoda," she whispered. "A lot to ask, evacuation is. Understand the Force, all migru do not." She paused, lowering her voice even more. "Considered, have you, that no danger, there is?"

Yoda glared at her.

Gandol stepped forward and looked down at Yoda with compassionate eyes. "Yoda, understand how this sounds, you must. No enemies, the migru have. No power known, destroy a planet can. No evidence, you have. Evacuate a planet on this, I cannot."

Yoda turned from Rizza and stared at Gandol. They looked intently into each others' eyes for several long moments.

Yoda broke the gaze and sighed. "Right you are, of course," Yoda said. "Know what to do, I do not. Frustrating, it is. Danger there is, but understand it, I do not! Who? What? Why? More questions than answers, I have."

"Investigate those questions, you should." Gandol's voice was gentle and calming. There was no condescension. Yoda smiled in appreciation. "In the mean time, send several migru ambassadors to other planets, I will. Learn other cultures, we migru should. Expect, I do, that several years of absence this assignment will take."

Yoda's stern face lightened. He nodded at his friend, turned and walked to the open doorway. He stopped at the threshold and looked out at the green vista of Migruna III. He felt Rizza and Gandol stares as they watched him closely.

Beyond the Jedi Master, the roiling green hills of Migruna III stood tall in the distance. The trees swayed gently in the cool breeze and the birds chirped a symphony in celebration of the planet's beauty.

"Thank you," Yoda called over his shoulder. A deep breath, and he leapt off the balcony.

"You're welcome, old friend," Gandol replied after a moment. Rizza hooked her arm in her father's. She leaned in and kissed him softly on the cheek. Gandol smiled weakly. "Worried about him, I am," he said.

"I know," Rizza answered. "Trust him though, I do. Our best interests, he has."

"Yes. But in his interests, my worry lies. Know little, I do, about this dark side you speak of. Told me, your mother did, that to this dark side, fear and worry lead. If true this is, too close to the darkness, my friend Yoda is becoming."

"Scared, he is. To save a world, much to ask of oneself it is. Save it when unknown the danger is…

"Look after him, Rizza."

"The best I can, I will do."

"More than that, no one can ask."


"I'm not sure why you would think I would leave a Council-ordered mission in the first place!"

"Assumed, I did, that concerned you might be." Yoda's face did not hide his contempt for Yaddle's exasperation. His jaw was set and his mouth moved only enough to utter his words through gritted teeth. "Clearly mistaken, I was."

"Don't be like that, Yoda." Yaddle's face softened and her voice lowered.

"Master Yoda, Jedi Yaddle. Earned the title, I have."

Yaddle's lips drew tight but she only lowered her eyes and nodded. Yoda frowned at the realization that he had just chastised Yaddle for the same thing that Taru loved to complain about.

"Of course, Master Yoda. Forgive me." She raised her chin and looked Yoda in the eyes through their HoloNet connection. Yoda nodded and smiled weakly.

"Taught Rizza well, you have. More advanced than most padawans, she is."

Yaddle's eyes widened momentarily. A thoughtful expression crossed her face before she broke into a smile.

"Thank you, Yoda. But I can't really claim credit. Rizza left my side nearly fifty years ago. I had taught her what I could but she didn't seem to be grasping everything very well. It was why I never allowed her to make a lightsaber, although she constantly requested it. She planned on returning to Migruna III after touring some ruins she found interesting in the outer rim systems. Clearly, she's been working hard in the intervening years to earn such high praise from you."

Yoda's hand went to his chin as he knitted his eyebrows in contemplation. "Impressive, indeed, she has become. To learn such skill on her own, amazing it is. Rudimentary her technique is. But sound, her efforts are. Easily trained, she will be. Proud of this accomplishment, you should be, Yaddle."

"I am. Thank you Master Yoda." She smiled as Yoda nodded in response. "What are you planning to do, exactly?"

"Unclear, my path is. Difficult to say, how imminent the danger is. Across the galaxy, several migru will go. If come to pass, my dream does, save our culture we will."

"And what about you? Assuming that your premonition holds true, what do you hope to accomplish there? From what Rizza described to me, it seems that there is nothing you can do if the attack occurs. What if you're unable to intercept the attacking force soon enough? Perhaps you should consider evacuating yourself."

Yoda's breath caught in his chest. He glared at Yaddle with widening eyes. "Leave Migruna III?"

"Yoda, if something does happen with you on the planet, what would happen? You're too valuable to the Order to allow yourself to be killed needlessly."

Yoda's jaw dropped several centimeters, his mouth forming a perfect circle. Slowly he brought his mouth closed and narrowed his eyes, a look of determination building.

"The same as theirs, my fate will be! Yoda out."


"The heart of the blade, the crystal is."

Rizza knelt on the damp dirt floor of the darkened cave, eyes closed, deep in concentration. Her breathing was silent and steady as she manipulated the disparate parts of her lightsaber. All that could be heard in the chamber was the muted utterances of the Jedi Master who stood before her. The light from two small lanterns on opposite corners of the alcove cast dim shadows across Yoda's impassive face.

"The crystal of the Jedi, the heart is."

The green crystal settled neatly in the focusing chamber in the lower hilt of the lightsaber.

"The crystal of the Force, the Jedi is."

The upper hilt mated seamlessly with the lower hilt.

"The blade of the heart, the Force is."

Several imperceptible intricate adjustments were made inside the suspended lightsaber handle that would enable the weapon to function.

"Intertwined, all are. The crystal; the blade; the Jedi; the Force; one, you are."

Power burst from the blade that now rested in Rizza's hand and cast a green shadow throughout the cave.

"My training, begin now it will?" Rizza's eyes blinked open and stared openly at Yoda.

"Already begun, your training has."

"No. My lightsaber training."

"Trained you, I did on Coruscant. Performed well, you did."

"No. More training, I require."

"Patience."

"Master Yoda." She stood and walked with the activated blade between her and Yoda. Yoda stood his ground but scrutinized her closely. "Know I do not, how to fight as well as you. Train me you should. Prepare me. A great sword master, I wish to be!"

Yoda closed his eyes and Rizza's lightsaber sailed from her hands to lodge into the solid rock on the far side of the cave. The weapon hung in the air by its activated plasma. Sighing loudly, Yoda opened his eyes. The lightsaber deactivated and the hilt thudded on the soft earth.

"Listen to me, you will! Decide on how you are to be trained, I will." His voice softened. "No training do you require. Know that which you need, you already do." There was no anger in his eyes. His face was calm and emotionless. "Argue with me again, and no Master will you have."

Blood rushed to Rizza's face as she bowed her head respectfully.

"Forgive me, Master."

"I wouldn't throw away a perfectly good lightsaber so callously, if I were you, Yoda!"

Yoda whirled so quickly that Rizza barely recognized the motion. She never saw his lightsaber detach itself from his belt and land smoothly into his palm. Her eyes barely caught the rapid ignition of Yoda's green blade as the smell of ozone assailed her senses. Yoda stood between her and the mouth of the cave.

In that entrance stood a two-meter tall creature, legs spread and arms arched on either side, fingers twitching in anticipation. Two thick horns grew from either side of the Iktotchi's head that tapered into sharpened points just above his collarbones. His face was contorted into a look of absolute disgust.

While Yoda had met many Iktotchi in his lifetime, never had the Jedi Master seen one like this. The Iktotchi that stood before him burned with rage. All the rage was in his eyes—eyes that smoldered with the color of Migruna III's twin suns.