Chapter 4

Luke Skywalker crept slowly into the darkened cavern, illuminated only by blue-white glowworms. He could smell old fungus and the occasional drip-drip of water in the far distance. Luke could have used a glowrod to aid his vision, but the young pilot knew it was a test. He had to trust the Force, not his eyes.

The cave was like a nexus in the Force, giving Luke's senses an extra push as he navigated through the winding tunnels.

Luke stopped walking as he heard some creature scurry along the walls. He turned his head, eyes long-accustomed to the blue-white light. By the sound of its footsteps, it was probably the size of some of those reptilian creatures he'd encountered on Dagobah. The cool damp air seemed to be appealing to more than just jungle growth.

Then, Luke heard a voice unfamiliar to him.

"You're going to pay for all the Jedi that you killed today, Dooku," a young man growled.

Luke watched as a clear vision appeared before him as a collection of mist. Two Jedi with blazing energy swords stepped forward. One looked to be in his early thirties while the other appeared to be Luke's age.

"We'll take him together," the older one said cautiously, the voice forcing Luke to realize it was a younger Obi-Wan Kenobi. "You go in slowly on the left…"

"I'm taking him now!" the youth exclaimed furiously, charging into action.

"No, Anakin!" Obi-Wan pleaded. "No!"

"Father?" Luke whispered, finally getting a glimpse of the man who sired him. Then, the vision suddenly ceased, leaving Luke alone in the dark cavern.

"What happened that day, Ben?" Luke asked before continuing his journey through the winding cavern. The sound of rushing water filled his ears as he continued his descent.

"Anakin learned an important lesson that day," Obi-Wan replied, prompting Luke to stop moving as he felt the familiar tingle in the Force.

Luke glanced around the cave, but Kenobi's apparition did not appear. "What happened?" he questioned.

"During the Battle of Geonosis, Count Dooku was attempting to escape," Obi-Wan explained. "We confronted him, only to discover that the Dark Side had tainted his spirit. He had been a great Jedi Master, but Dooku could not resist the temptation for greater power. He nearly killed us that day. Only Yoda's timely arrival saved us."

"Why did the Force show that to me?" Luke asked.

"It was a vision to demonstrate to you that any Jedi can be seduced by the Dark Side if he doesn't have the strongest conviction," Obi-Wan told him. "Now, you must continue your journey."

And with that, Luke could no longer sense Obi-Wan. He shook his head before continuing on. After making a few more twists and turns, Luke came across an underground river that blocked his path. "Well, this is nice," he commented before another vision from the Force assaulted him.

Luke could see Anakin Skywalker holding two lightsabers in a cross close to a man's throat: one blue-bladed and another red-bladed, casting a hellish glow across the man's neck. He stared at his father curiously. Anakin's hair had grown down to his shoulders and his blue eyes burned with a powerful fury.

Before Anakin knelt an older man who Luke recognized as Count Dooku, the leader of the defunct Confederacy of Independent Systems. The Empire vilified the man in the years after the war, so Dooku still possessed one of the most recognized faces in the galaxy.

"Kill him," a voice said. "Kill him now."

"Chancellor, please!" Dooku pleaded, staring towards a man Luke could not see. "Please, you promised me immunity! We had a deal! Help me!"

"A deal only if you released me," the Chancellor coldly retorted. "Not if you used me as bait to kill my friends."

After a pause, the Chancellor ordered, "Anakin, finish him."

Anakin stared at the wounded Dooku, hesitating. "I shouldn't."

"Do it!" barked the Chancellor. "Now!"

Anakin looked from the Chancellor back to Dooku. Then, without hesitation, he sliced with the blades, cleaving Dooku's head from his neck.

"Father!" Luke screamed, rushing towards the vision, only to watch it fade. He lost his footing and fell into the water with a yelp. The strong current pulled him forward. He would have kept going if his danger sense hadn't warned him.

And Luke's slick hands connected with a smoothed block of limestone rising above the water. Then, with the aid of the Force, he leapt from the water and landed on the rock, nearly losing his footing again. Using the Force to balance himself, Luke tried to divine how far the river had taken him while he ignored the drenched flight suit clinging to his body.

Luke leapt to the other side of the river and fell to his hands and knees. "Why did you murder him, Father?" he asked between pants.

But Obi-Wan was not there to answer him that time, so Luke decided to continue his trek through the cave.

Moments later, Luke relocated his trail and was once again descending into the cavern's depths. The cool air collided with his flight suit, making the pilot shiver. As he rounded a curve, Luke felt as if he had walked into a wall of ice.

Anakin Skywalker knelt before a man in a black cloak. Even though Luke knew he observed a vision of the past, he could sense the darkness in the cloaked man far across the sands of time.

"Is it your will to join your destiny forever with the Order of the Sith Lords?" the man asked.

Luke froze in place. He wanted to scream, but the Force weighed heavily on his body. The Force wanted to show him the most important knowledge in the galaxy.

"Yes," Anakin said.

The dark man placed his hand on Anakin's forehead. "Then it is done," he said. "You are now one with the Order of the Dark Lords of the Sith. From his day forward, the truth of you, my apprentice, now and forevermore, will be Darth…"

No! Luke's mind screamed as he tried to convince himself that what he was seeing was false.

"Vader," the man finished.

"That's not true!" Luke bellowed, anguish tearing through his body as he charged at the disappearing vision. "That can't be real! Ben wouldn't lie to me! My father isn't Darth Vader! Vader murdered my father!"

Luke stopped to catch his breath. He was fit enough that a short sprint should not have exhausted him, but his heart felt heavy. "Ben," he said before falling on hands and knees.

"Anakin was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force," Obi-Wan said, his apparition appearing before Luke. "He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader."

Luke tilted his head to face his first mentor. "But what you told me?" he asked.

"What I told you was true," Kenobi replied, "from a certain point of view."

"A certain point of view?" Luke inquired curiously before he stood once again.

"Luke, you will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our point of view," the ghost answered.

"Why didn't you just tell me the truth?" Luke asked, trying and failing to keep venom from creeping into his voice.

"You were not yet ready to know of Anakin's fate," Obi-Wan replied. "Anakin was my best friend." Sadly, he added, "I owed him that much."

Luke searched with the Force, trying to detect any hint of deception from Obi-Wan. But as he feared, he found none. "So all this time, my greatest enemy has been my own flesh and blood?"

"The visions represent much more than a revelation," Obi-Wan replied. "As the last of the Jedi, you are warned by them. If you embrace the darkness, it will not release you."

Luke walked past Obi-Wan's ghostly form. Something gleaming beckoned him: three green crystals. As if willed by the Force, they fell from the cavern's rocky face and into Luke's outstretched right hand.

"This is the true trial of the Jedi," Obi-Wan said to Luke's back. "Vader and his Emperor must be stopped. Now you realize why I urged patience. If you had rushed to save your friends, you would have faced Vader without knowing who he had been and you would have had difficulty coping with it if he had revealed himself to you."

"Ben," Luke said as he clenched his fist over the crystals. He turned to face the ghost and asked, "What's next?"

"You must return to Tatooine," Obi-Wan told him. "In my hut, you will find the instructions for constructing your new lightsaber."

Luke nodded. The weight of the revelation weighed heavily on him, testing his trust in the Force. The Force would never lie, but Luke knew that visions could be misinterpreted by the seer.

"Then I shouldn't waste any time," Luke said before walking back the way he came.