Author's note: Thank you all for joining me on this journey about Yoda's descent into the dark. There are 5 more posts left in total. They are all epilogues but are sort of chapters in their own right. They connect directly to the title of Part III--Destiny. They rocket you through time from the last chapter to a familiar place most of you might be familiar with--the beginning of Fall of the Sith. I've labled them Epilogues 1-5 but each has its own title. I hope you don't find that too confusing. I hope you enjoy. And now, the first of the epilogues...

Epilogue…

Suffer the Children

"Yes, yes. Feel the Force!" Yoda whispered into his padawan's ear as he clutched tightly to the boy's sinewy shoulders. The young man took a hard turn to the right before leaping thirty meters into the air and landing fleet-footed on a two-meter-wide stanchion in the training room. The teenager's breathing was heavy and labored. He was slowing down. Yoda dug his nails deep into the padawan's shoulder.

"Ow!" the boy yelled.

Yoda pushed himself off his apprentice's shoulder and flipped over the young man's head. Yoda had already pulled his weapon to his hand, activated it, and was twisting the blade in the hapless student's direction before he landed. When Yoda swung the blade toward his pupil's head with a new leap, the boy managed to duck at the last second and rolled to the other side of the platform.

When the learner stood again, his azure blade was out and ready, angled down to the right in preparation for another attack. Yoda pushed off the metal grate. The boy moved his blade to his left.

The student's eyes widened, his mouth open. Yoda landed on the wall to the boy's left, and the Jedi Master began to run along the bulkhead, his blade a green blur. A twist of his body to the right in a tight circle kept the apprentice's head attached. A flick of his lightsaber in a smooth arc deflected Yoda's assault and forced him off the wall.

The Jedi Master gave no indication that the boy had accomplished anything remarkable. Instead, he deactivated his weapon and pushed off the stanchion with his hands, hurtling toward the startled boy, feet first.

Taken aback, the teen angled his blade vertically and brought it in close in obvious desperation. The Jedi Master pulled the weapon free with the Force. As the boy watched his weapon freefall over the railing, the Jedi Master's feet pounded into his chest. The boy landed hard.

Yoda stood atop his padawan's chest, his face impassive. "Better, that was, Dooku." The Jedi Master frowned. "But remain focused, you must, even when tired."

Dooku nodded blankly. Blood rushed to his already flushed face. Blinking a bead of sweat out of his eye, he glared at his Master. Yoda raised his right eyebrow, and then the corner of his mouth turned upward in a lopsided smile.

The apprentice's lips contorted into an instant snarl, and he pushed hard.

Yoda's eyes went wide as he sailed over the railing and fell toward the marble floor below. Whatever surprise the Jedi Master had experienced was instantly put aside as Yoda righted himself, extended his hands to either side, and called on the Force to slow his fall. As he landed, his discarded gimer stick flew to his hand.

Dooku landed two meters behind Yoda, his recovered weapon high above his head as he charged in, his teeth gritted and bared.

Yoda raised a hand.

The boy screeched to a halt, crashing hard into an invisible wall.

Yoda balled his raised hand into a fist.

The weapon deactivated in Dooku's hand, and then crumpled around its crystal. The student stepped back cautiously from the dismantled weapon as the fuel cell, and then the crushed hilt, fell to the floor with a dull metallic thud. The dismantled chrome hilt, now nothing more than a distorted metal globe, rolled unevenly about on the floor before stopping at Dooku's feet. The discarded fuel cell glistened in its pristine state a meter away.

Yoda turned.

Dooku bowed his head, but kept his eyes on the Jedi Master. "My apologies, Master Yoda. I forgot myself for a moment."

Yoda's face was stern, a marked look of concern embedded on his wrinkled face. "Indeed," he replied. The Jedi Master hobbled slowly toward his pupil. The sound of his gimer stick pounding the floor with each step echoed loudly in the large empty chamber. "With anger, you attacked."

Dooku nodded. "Yes, Master."

"Great care, you must take." Yoda stopped directly in front of his apprentice and stared intently into the boy's eyes. "Anger, fear, aggression—of the dark side are they."

"I know, Master."

"Embarrassed, you are, and well you should be!" Yoda poked Dooku in the shin with the tip of his stick and smiled. "Lose his lightsaber, a Jedi should not!"

Dooku's shoulders loosened visibly, and the apprentice mirrored his Master's smile. "Well—" Dooku grinned as he toed his decimated lightsaber hilt—"I'll keep that in mind when I replace this one." Yoda chuckled. Dooku raised an appreciative brow as he continued to gaze at his weapon. "I didn't think anybody could do that with the Force, Master Yoda."

Yoda's smile faded a little. He glanced down to where Dooku kicked at the small metal ball. A flick of the Force brought the ball to Yoda's hand. He stared at it for a long moment, and then tossed it high in the air, smiling. Dooku reached out and caught it.

"Much to learn, you still have, Padawan!" Yoda announced and turned toward the door. "Come! Time for dinner, it is."

Yoda started to hobble to the exit but stopped after a few steps. Knitting his brow, he turned again and glanced at his apprentice.

The boy shuffled his feet awkwardly.

Yoda rested both his hands on each other atop his gimer stick. "A question, you have?"

Dooku ran a hand through his jet-black hair and gripped the back of his neck. He glanced back and forth from the deactivated fuel cell on the floor to the corrugated metal sphere in his hand. Closing his eyes, he closed his fist around the ball.

At length, he opened his eyes and fixed his stare on Yoda, his face an inscrutable mask. "I will never have the power to do that, will I?"

Yoda screwed up his face briefly. Then he let out a loud breath. "In time, Padawan. Patience. Strong you are in the Force. Focus and training, you need, to realize your full potential."

Dooku straightened. "But I will never realize my full potential, will I?"

Yoda lifted his chin and pursed his lips. His eyes lost focus, and he gazed out through lidded eyes. Finally he focused his stare on his young padawan. His ears drooped low. "Dangerous, this line of questioning is, Dooku," Yoda replied. He raised a hand and pointed one of his gnarled fingers at his Padawan. "To the dark side, it will take you."

"Do you realize how often you warn me about the dark side, Master?" Dooku paused for moment and swallowed. When he spoke again, his tone grew harsh. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Yoda stared quietly at the backs of his hands. He picked up his gimer stick and drew a small, invisible circle on the floor. "Tell you what you need, I do."

Dooku crossed the distance between them, his arms extended. "But why only me?" he pleaded. "Ever since I was in the crèche you've hounded me about the dark side. It makes me feel…it makes me feel…."

Yoda looked up. "Feel how?"

"…like you sense something about me." Dooku squatted so that he was at eye level with his Master. "I wonder if you have seen something in my future…that I will turn to the dark side…or...something."

Yoda sighed and looked away. "Clouded, your future is. Impossible to see." The boy's head dropped. Yoda quickly caught his padawan's chin and lifted it. "Prepared, you will be, to face your uncertain future."

"Is…is that why you encouraged me to learn the Makashi style of lightsaber combat? I'm the only padawan practicing it."

"Suited to you, Form Two lightsaber training is." Yoda patted Dooku on the shoulder. "More natural, is your skill, than the other padawans. Worry, you should not, about being different. Unique, every Jedi is." He paused as Dooku smiled weakly. Yoda's voice was more insistent. "And a great Jedi, you will be."

Dooku stood. "Powerful?"

Yoda nodded. "Now come. Hungry, I am."


"Thank you so much for coming down on such short notice, Master Yoda. It's always a special treat to have you stop by!"

Yoda raised his right eyebrow as he maneuvered his hover chair through the open doorway and toward the lithe Umbaran. The tall humanoid Jedi Seeker's pallid eyes sparkled in the low light of the crèche.

Yoda nodded curtly. "The reason for your urgent summons, tell me, Master Syndaar."

Syndaar pulled his head back, a look of astonishment on his face. He blinked several times, and then smiled before responding. "Ahhh…yes, Master Yoda. Please forgive me. Sometimes in my own little world here, I forget how little time other Jedi have for pleasantries." He turned around and began entering a code for the nursery door. "There was a period when all I had was time on my hands. Alas, these new mandates for larger youngling classes have kept me quite busy down here. I've even had to go out on assignment myself for the last three batches."

Yoda spun his chair on the Jedi Master. "Younglings, they are! Not equipment! Refer to them in that way, you should not!"

The Seeker's mouth dropped open and hung agape for several moments. Yoda maintained his intense stare, determined that the Seeker should correct himself. "Yes…of course, Master Yoda. My apologies." The Umbaran bowed, then finished entering the code. "The newest of our younglings is why I called you, sir."

"Hmmm…?"

The doors swished apart, and Yoda had to lower his ears to dampen the sudden onrush of noise emanating from the new chamber. Yoda's eyes widened as he took in the room. Nearly one hundred younglings from all over the galaxy lay in their plasteel cradles, screaming and wailing in the various forms peculiar to their species.

"I apologize for the commotion," Syndaar yelled above the din, "but they have been undergoing their anti-attachment training, and many of the older children are having a hard time adapting."

Yoda's eyes narrowed. "I see…."

Syndaar seemed to take Yoda's reaction personally, as he dropped his eyes and bowed. Yoda forced a reassuring smile and kicked his floating chair into motion to survey the room. Fourteen other Seekers scurried about from one crib to another, taking notes on their data pads, likely to document the progress of the various children.

Yoda sighed.

As he began to turn his hover chair toward Syndaar to ask again about the purpose of his call, something caught his attention.

Unsure of what he had observed, Yoda floated over to a single crib set apart slightly from the rest. Lying in the bed was a single dark-skinned human boy. The boy was clearly older than the others—perhaps eleven standard months in age. And unlike the other younglings, this child was silent as he stared calmly at the ceiling. Yoda turned his gaze upward in an attempt to see what the boy found so fascinating. Perhaps it was the ornate decorative arches that ran along the curved roof. Yoda pursed his lips and once again looked at the child.

Abruptly, the boy turned his head and looked at Yoda. The two gazed at each other for a long moment. Opening his perceptions in the Force, Yoda was astonished by the brilliant radiance in the Force the youngling possessed.

"I found him myself!" Yoda startled at Syndaar's sudden presence. He shot Syndaar a sidelong glance. "He's the reason I called you down, Sir."

"Adjusting well, he seems to be," Yoda replied.

"Yes…well…." Syndaar looked uncomfortable. "If you would step away for a moment, please?" Syndaar turned away and walked into a small adjoining room. Curious, Yoda followed. The anteroom was a small observation booth with a clear view of the child's bed.

"What are we doing?" Yoda asked in a hushed tone, though he was not sure why he was whispering.

"Wait one more moment, Master Yoda."

Yoda sighed and turned his attention to the baby. Within seconds, a tiny silvery rattle floated from a stand where they were stored and into the baby's crib. Yoda turned to Syndaar in confusion.

"He does this every time he thinks we're not watching," Syndaar said excitedly. "Whenever we take it away, he gives it up willingly and without a fuss. But as soon as our backs are turned, he retrieves it with ease. Astounding, don't you think?"

Yoda let out a breath. "Indeed." He returned his gaze to the child. "How long has he been here?"

"We only brought him here yesterday. He has the highest midi-chlorian count on record apart from yours."

"Is that so?" Yoda asked absently, his attention focused on the boy.

"Oh, yes!" Syndaar continued animatedly. "His people were somewhat reluctant to part with him, sadly. It took some…persuading."

Yoda turned his head at that. The Umbaran grinned sheepishly and shrugged. The Jedi Council had often turned a blind eye to Syndaar's tactic of using his people's skill at subtle manipulation in his quest to convince parents to give up their children to the Order. Yoda was the lone dissenting voice to this practice, convinced that it would eventually lead people to distrust the Jedi. So far, he had been proven wrong. The Jedi were the most respected institution in the galaxy.

"From where, did he come?" Yoda whispered, continuing to watch the boy as one of the Seekers rushed to the boy's side and took the rattle away.

"That's an interesting tale, in and of itself actually," Syndaar replied. "The planet has an unusually dense concentration of Force-adepts, though none of them are trained. Perhaps you've heard of it? Haruun Kal?"

Yoda spun instantly. "Haruun Kal, you say? Certain, you are?"

Syndaar stepped back with a look of astonishment. "Well…yes, Master, quite sure." Syndaar knitted his brows. "Do you…know the Korun?"

Yoda glanced back at the boy and swallowed. "The youngling's parents, met them, you did?"

Syndaar glimpsed in the direction Yoda was looking. "The mother, yes," he replied tentatively. "She was quite anxious to have us take him, actually. It was their chieftain who put up the most resistance."

Yoda returned his attention to Syndaar. "Their chieftain?"

"Yes. They have a tribal system of government, centered on a fairly powerful Force-adept who acts as a healer. He claimed that the child was from a long line of healers and could not leave the planet."

Yoda frowned. "His name?"

"The boy?" Syndaar asked. "His name is Mace Windu."

"The chieftain. What was his name?" Yoda pressed, his throat tight.

"I'm not sure, actually. His people called him Ka'heen, though I believe that was his title."

"Ka'heen…?" Yoda whispered, as much to himself as in response to Syndaar. Yoda stared out the observation window and watched as a new rattle arose and settled into the bed. "Kaine…" He could barely hear his own voice above the pounding in his chest. Closing his eyes, Yoda breathed deeply, searching the Force. When he opened his eyes again, he was calm, his mind clear.

"Begin these younglings' training, I will," Yoda announced. "Focus their training, I can."

Syndaar's eyes widened. "Of…of…course, Master Yoda." The Seeker placed his hands behind his back and lifted his chin. "When would you like to begin?"

Yoda maneuvered his chair out of the anteroom. Syndaar had to scurry to catch up. "Bring Mace to my chambers this evening. Conduct his anti-attachment training myself, I shall."

"Yes, Master Yoda."

"To train the others, a new schedule, we will need. Discuss this with the Council, I will."

"Understood."

When the doors slid shut behind him, Yoda stopped and stared down the long sunlit corridor, deep in thought. He did not move again until long after the dim passageway lighting provided the only source of illumination.